


easier with you inside

by concernedlily



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Sentient Voltron Lions, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 15:39:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15513042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/concernedlily/pseuds/concernedlily
Summary: “It’s not far enough to be killing yourself over,” Shiro says, shooting up in time to catch Keith as he stumbles back through into Black’s cramped living quarters.





	easier with you inside

It’s a long way to Earth without a wormhole. 

“It’s not long enough to be killing yourself over,” Shiro says, shooting up in time to catch Keith as he stumbles back through into Black’s cramped living quarters. He gets his arm around Keith’s waist and supports him back to what passes as the couch; Krolia gets up and starts to come towards them to help and then pauses when Keith slides his arm around Shiro’s shoulders and turns into him, letting Shiro take his weight. Shiro gives her a frazzled, apologetic look and she only gives him a small smile in return, going back to her device. 

They both drop down in a tangle, Keith trying to help but his usual pinpoint sense of his body eclipsed by exhaustion. Neither of them try to separate. They end up with Keith sprawled on him and not seeming inclined to move: Shiro tugs and nudges until he’s got Keith lying against his chest, cradled between his legs, and starts to rub his temple. 

“It’s worth doing,” Keith mumbles, the pained creases in his forehead smoothing out under Shiro’s touch. “If we can maintain the teleport we could cut the journey down by months.”

“We’ll still get there either way,” Shiro argues. He can’t fight the general point - discovering that the other lions could ride in the slipstream of Black’s teleport had been a good day - but he hates how much it takes out of Keith, and Black as well. He still has a thread of that connection to her: not enough to be able to help fly, but her being resonates in the back of his mind. 

“You should consider too that there are still many Galra detachments out there, as well as other threats,” Krolia says. “The lions need to be in fighting condition.”

“Yeah, okay,” Keith says, but he’s not listening, his breaths turning slow and long. Shiro lets his hand slip down, rubbing at his shoulder, his palm coming to rest over Keith’s heart. 

***

Having Keith in his arms is comforting. His time in the black lion’s consciousness is already more an intellectual understanding he was there than it is real memory, but he knows at a bone and skin level that he was _gone_ , the same way he knows that this body is still new. He falls asleep that way, wrapped around Keith. 

When he wakes there’s a blanket over them. He feels better rested than he can remember and Keith’s eyes are bright. 

Keith lies down with him again their next sleep cycle, and after that it just seems to make sense for them to share. They don’t talk about it. 

***

Awake, Keith is a coiled spring, always ready for a fight. He’s a tidy sleeper, still and hard to wake: they’re over halfway there and Black needs him in the pilot’s chair for hours and hours at a time, the days blurring together. Shiro is the one who orbits him, sheets wrapping around them both. 

He used to have nightmares about the arena, the surgeries, his team dying around him. Now it’s endless starfields, and he’s alone. 

Keith murmurs in his sleep and flops his hand into Shiro’s hair when Shiro cuddles onto his chest. 

***

“The black lion is demanding of you,” Krolia says, her voice laced with a harshness Shiro has come to identify as Galran maternal concern, and Shiro and Keith both bristle. 

“I don’t mind,” Keith says. He lists a little further into Shiro’s side and Shiro settles his arm more securely around Keith’s shoulders. “It’s trying really hard for us.”

Krolia hands him a glass of stale water. “You should rest.”

“She takes more energy than Red,” Keith mumbles to him later, half-asleep. 

“She’s the leader,” Shiro says. He drapes his arm over Keith’s waist and Keith twines his fingers with Shiro’s on his stomach. 

***

Black’s pilot’s chair still feels familiar. There’s a gentle caress in his mind and then she settles. The other lions are flying close, vivid colour in the edges of his vision; the rest is space and silence. 

“Shiro?” Keith says from the doorway. 

“I’m here,” Shiro says.

Keith is wearing the undershirt from Shiro’s armour instead of his own. He’s broader now but it still hangs off of him. He puts his hands on Shiro’s shoulders and looks down at him with a gentle gaze, and Shiro reaches up and pulls him down to rest together in the chair. 

Black hums underneath them, content. 

Keith says, “She was easier when you were inside her.”

***

They’ve flown close to a star overnight and light is flooding in through the cockpit. Keith blinks up at Shiro lazily from his resting place on Shiro’s bare shoulder and it’s totally natural to lean down and kiss him good morning. Keith’s mouth is welcoming on his, the kiss short, sweet. Shiro might have called it a perfect first kiss, but it doesn’t feel like a first: it could be any morning, every morning.

Keith gets up and ambles to the kitchenette, Shiro watching him, all messy dark hair and loose hips and grace. Black is in his mind, approving: every part of him feels sharp, alive, whole. 

“You want food goo or food goo?” Keith shouts, and Shiro smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on [tumblr](http://concernedlily.tumblr.com)!


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